Three Rolls Royces

From Great North Road

Three Rolls Royces by Paddy Fleming

As a kid I lived on a farm on the Mumbwa road outside Lusaka. There were at least three Rolls’ that I knew of out that way. My father owned one between 1949 and 1952. (He was a lawyer and presumably acquired the Rolls off a busted client in lieu of fees because he normally drove a clapped out old Ford truck). It was a late 1930s model but as my father is now dead its history is probably untraceable and there are certainly no photographs surviving. I remember driving in that car from Lusaka via Livingstone to Bulawayo and Salisbury mostly on laterite and strip roads. We returned via Chirundu. The escarpment roads on both sides of the Zambezi Valley were no more than boulder-strewn mule tracks at that time -- not exactly the stately boulevards on which RR would have preferred to see their cars parading. There was a ferry across the Kafue river where the bridge now stands. That model of Rolls was quaintly called a ‘Chauffeur Model’. All the controls (hand brake, gear lever etc) were tucked down on the right hand side of the driver’s seat next to the driver’s door. This layout was supposed to prevent the chauffeur’s hands straying too near to the knees of the Lady in the passenger seat.

The second Rolls on the Mumbwa road, which is probably even less traceable, went past our drive every day in the mid 1950s carrying milk into town. It was a ‘sawn-off’ version -- the top had been cut off and it had been converted to carry milk cans. Bizarrely, it had a thatched roof, presumably to keep the milk cool. The thatching was not a ‘bush’ job but was beautifully done in the Barotse style as befits a Rolls. I know of no photos but, once again, I doubt it’s the sort of image that RR would like to see.

The third Rolls on the Mumbwa road , and probably the most traceable, was that owned by Jerry Allinson in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Jerry kept a mid 1930s model in immaculate condition and I’m sure would have a very comprehensive knowledge of its identity and history. He left Zambia and went to Zimbabwe in the 1960s before returning to England. If you can trace him (he’s still around somewhere in UK) you could get a lot of information on that particular Rolls and probably many others besides. Jerry used to demonstrate to me what an incredible car he owned by starting it in the morning, not by winding it up on the starter motor, but by wriggling the ignition advance/retard lever on the steering wheel. It was able to maintain cylinder compression overnight.

Contributed by Paddy Fleming.

April 17, 2003